


cheese > boys

by lbswasp



Series: i guess this is growing up [2]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Cheese, Coming of Age, Gen, Slice of Life, girl things, mention of Joyce/Hopper (if you squint), mention of Mike/Eleven
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-16
Updated: 2018-01-16
Packaged: 2019-03-05 17:34:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13392810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lbswasp/pseuds/lbswasp
Summary: Hopper was proud, and worried, and whenever Jane screamed, Hopper was there.Including one Sunday morning in late August, 1985.





	cheese > boys

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the story of how when the boys were getting annoying on set during Season 1, Winona would invite Millie into her trailer to sit and eat cheese.
> 
> This story is set in late August 1985, just before Jane is due to start High School alongside the boys. Sometime between the events of November 1984 and August 1985, Hopper buys a house for him and Jane (I like FateChica’s idea that the government would have paid Hopper twice to cover up what happened in the lab and that he used this money to buy a nice house for him and Jane. Where they can have their own bedrooms. And Jane can go outside.)
> 
> Kindly beta-ed by [deinvati](http://archiveofourown.org/users/deinvati/pseuds/deinvati).

They all had nightmares. All of them. It was common to see any of them, or sometimes all of them, with dark circles under their eyes after a night of terrible dreams.

Or a night where, after they woke up screaming, they couldn’t get back to sleep.

Of all the people to have nightmares, Jane and Will’s were the most frequent. Every time Will woke up screaming, Joyce would be there to soothe him back to sleep, or make him a hot cocoa and sit with him until the sun came up.

Every time Jane had a nightmare, Hopper was there. He’d come running down the hallway, service weapon drawn (screw Hawkins PD gun safety rules, his kid might be in danger!) and burst into her room.

 

(Every time. Including that time in 1988 that Jane had a nightmare on one of the nights that Mike had snuck over and curled up with her and fallen asleep. He was on top of the covers, he wasn’t an idiot, but when Jane started screaming and Hopper had burst through the door with his gun out all Mike could think of was to dive head first out of the window, where he’d promptly landed in a hydrangea. The sight of Hopper in his boxers chasing a shrieking Mike with flowers stuck in his hair down the street had helped Jane realise she was no longer in her nightmare. It was also now legend in the neighborhood.

Hopper might be saving the story up for his speech when Mike and Jane get married. Not that he’d told anyone that.)

 

Jane was a never-ending source of pride and worry for Hopper. He was proud of how far she’d come since escaping from the lab, proud of how quickly she learned things, proud of how she was adapting to life in Hawkins. He was looking forward to her heading to school in the fall, as he was sure she was going to be amazing.

He was also worried about her. He was worried every time she had a nightmare. He was worried every time a car with darkened windows drove past. Every time he stopped and thought about the horrors that she had been subjected to. As the years went by and Jane started to seek out her brothers and sisters from the lab and Hopper learnt more about the things that had happened to these children, he worried more.

 

(When he had a minor heart attack at age 45, Hopper joked that it was worrying about Jane that had caused it. Joyce, hovering beside his hospital bed, had smacked his head and muttered “only 8,000 calories my ass” before bursting into hysterical tears. Hopper never joked about his heart attack ever again. And quit smoking. And tried to eat better. And exercise more. Anything to stop Joyce crying, and to stop Jane looking at him like her world was ending.)

 

Hopper was proud, and worried, and whenever Jane screamed, Hopper was there.

Including one Sunday morning in late August, 1985.

Jane and Hopper had been out until well after midnight the night before. They had gone to Indianapolis to search out one of Jane’s brothers — a young man named Aleric (004) who could manipulate metal with his mind. He was currently working as a jewellers apprentice, and as long as he never had to go into the dark, was generally okay. Jane and Aleric had swapped phone numbers, and Aleric had promised to come and visit Hawkins one day. Now that Hopper and Jane had an actual house with multiple bedrooms, they were both pleased to be able to invite people around.

It was the end of summer, and the boys (and Max) had planned to meet early in the cool of the morning and work on Castle Byers for a bit while Jane slept in from her late night out. So they were all gathered in Joyce’s kitchen in various degrees of ‘awake’ when Hopper rang Joyce in a panic.

“Jane — blood — screaming — help!”

Joyce slammed down the phone and grabbed her keys. She pounded on Jonathan’s door to get him to wake up, and simply raised an eyebrow when she opened the door and found Nancy Wheeler wearing one of Jonathan’s shirts. Joyce sent the two teenagers a look that promised there would be an uncomfortable discussion later. But in the meantime, there was something wrong with Jane, Hopper had called for help, and between Joyce and Jonathan they managed to get all of the kids into cars in record time (Dustin had called Steve while Joyce had been waking up Jonathan: “Meet us at the Hoppers’! Bring the bat!”).

When the cars pulled up at the Hopper house (Steve pulling up not a minute later than the others, half dressed but ready with the bat), they found Hopper pacing on the porch, furiously smoking.

“Where’s Jane?” “Is everything okay?” “What is it this time?” “Is she badly hurt?” “Is it another demodog?” “Another demogorgon?” “WHERE’S JANE?!?” yelled everyone at once.

Hopper stopped in his tracks and stared at the gang of teenagers and Joyce on his front lawn, all ready to ride into battle for their friend at a moment’s notice. “Oh, god.”

“What? What is it?” Joyce took the stairs to the patio at a run and grabbed Hopper’s arms. She shook him as he stared at her, and at the teenagers on his lawn, then back to her in mute shock.

“You called in a panic and told me to come. Something about Jane, and blood, and screaming. Where is she? What’s happened? What do you need?”

“...I may have overreacted.” Hopper pushed his hand through his hair and started to pace again. “You need to go in and talk to Jane. Just you. No one else.”

Joyce looked at him oddly, but borrowed the bat from Steve and cautiously entered the house. She could hear faint crying coming from Jane’s bedroom, and tiptoed down the hallway, trying not to make a sound. Joyce pushed open the door and found Jane, seemingly alone, crying into her pillow.

“Jane? Sweetie?” said Joyce as she crept forward, scanning the room for danger. “What’s wrong?”

Jane hiccuped and raised her face from the pillow. “Hurts. Blood.”

“What hurts? Where’s the blood?”

Jane rolled over and gestured. “Stomach hurts. Blood from...down there.”

 _Oh,_  thought Joyce. _Oh, the poor thing. Her first period, and I’m betting Hopper never sat her down to give her The Talk. And then he freaked out, which would have freaked Jane out, which would have freaked Hopper out more…_

Joyce put the bat down with a sigh. “Has Hopper ever talked to you about where babies come from?”

 

* * *

 

The tension outside the Hopper house didn’t ease after Joyce went inside. Hopper continued to pace, while the teenagers formed small huddles. Dustin and Will were running through what Dungeons and Dragons monsters they thought they could be up against this time, while Steve and Max took stock of the weapons stashed in the three cars.

When Joyce emerged from the house, everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at her. She froze, then coughed awkwardly.

“It’s okay everyone, false alarm. Nancy, could I speak with you for a second?”

Nancy nodded and headed over to Joyce. After a whispered conversation that made Nancy blush, she grabbed her bag from Jonathan’s car and entered the house.

“What’s wrong? Why do you need Nancy?” asked Dustin, always ready to ask the awkward questions and still not entirely over his crush on the older girl.

“It’s...girl stuff.”

Comprehension dawned over Steve and Jonathan’s faces and they started to edge away from the house. The younger boys just looked confused.

“Girl stuff? What girl stuff?” asked Lucas.

Joyce looked at Hopper. “I’m explaining it to Jane. You can explain it to them.”

Hopper went white. “Do I have to?”

“Yes. Yes you do.”

Max had been watching the conversation with narrowed eyes, and stepped forward suddenly. “If this is what I think it is, I’ll stay with you too, Mrs. Byers.”

“Oh, yes, Max. In you come. Boys, you and Hopper will go...somewhere else and talk. Leave my car, we’re going to need it. Go on, get out of here, shoo!”

 

* * *

 

Nancy let herself into the bathroom where Jane was holed up. She always had a spare pad or two in her bag. It was awkward showing someone else how to use it, but Jane was special. Nancy could put up with awkward for Jane.

Jane had grabbed a quick shower while Joyce had fetched Nancy and was standing there, hair dripping, wrapped in a towel and looking miserable. Nancy showed her how to attach the pad to her underwear and left her alone to get dressed.

Nancy passed Jane’s bedroom to see Max stripping the bloody sheets off the bed.

“Max, you didn’t need to do that. Joyce or I could have done it,” said Nancy.

Max bundled the sheets up, and after a short pause, stripped the pillows as well and added them to the ball of soiled linen. “It’s okay, I want to help. I got mine for the first time just before we moved from California. It...wasn’t fun, and I want to be here to support Jane. We need to support each other. The boys can be really dumb sometimes and it’s nice to have a girl friend. Especially one who can throw things at them with her mind when they are being super annoying.”

“Has...has Jane done that?”

“No, but she can, and when it comes to how stupid the boys can be, that’s enough for me.”

Nancy remembered the awestruck way the boys had described how Max had threatened her step-brother with Steve’s baseball bat and was relieved that Max wasn’t the one with psychic powers. She decided to change the subject. “Hmm. Anyway, let’s see if we can work out how to use the washer in this place.”

Max scoffed. “If Hopper can work it, we can work it. Boys aren’t that smart, even adult ones.” She led the way down the hallway with her head held high, and Nancy followed her with a laugh.

 

* * *

 

A few minutes later, Jane shuffled out into the kitchen to find Joyce, Nancy and Max all waiting for her, hot cups of cocoa in their hands and a fourth one waiting for her with some tylenol beside it. Jane swallowed the pills and eased herself into the chair, cradling her cup of cocoa against her stomach.

“Okay. We’ll need to run to the store soon, but first, let’s go through the basics,” said Joyce. “You said Hopper hasn’t told you where babies come from?”

“Women,” answered Jane. “I know they come from women. It involves screaming. And blood. And pain.” She described what she had seen of her own birth in the vision she had had from her mother, which caused Joyce to go white and Nancy and Max to go green.

“Well,” said Joyce. “Neither Jonathan’s nor Will’s births were...ever like that. I mean, there was some pain, but there was also some very, very good drugs. Girls, if offered painkillers when in labor, take them. That was the advice my mother gave me, and I am now passing it onto you. It’s not pleasant, don’t get me wrong; it takes forever and it’s awkward and just...awkward, but generally giving birth is not that traumatic.”

The younger girls looked somewhat relieved at this.

“Anyway, this is getting ahead of ourselves.” Joyce paused, unsure how to begin The Talk. She thought that the traditional _when a man and a woman love each other very much_  approach probably wouldn’t work for Jane. For all that Mike and Jane’s romance was terribly soft and sweet, Joyce knew Jane wasn’t a fan of being patronized to. Joyce decided to just be as clinical as she could be and hope for the best.

“Jane, you are having your period. Your uterus has created an egg, but because it has not been fertilized, your body is getting rid of it. The pain you are feeling is cramps as your uterus gets rid of the unneeded egg and the tissues and stuff around it. Your body will then grow a new egg, and in about a month or so this will happen again.”

Joyce looked at the stunned expression on Jane’s face, as well as the sympathetic expressions on Max’s and Nancy’s.

“Okay. If we are going to have this conversation, we are going to need chocolate. Lots of chocolate.”

“And cheese,” said Jane.

“Cheese?” asked Joyce.

“Yeah, cheese. I just...want cheese. Right now."

The furniture in the room began to shudder as Jane’s face darkened into a scowl.

Joyce quickly stood. “Right, everyone in the car. We’re going to get supplies. And cheese. Lots of cheese.”

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi at [Tumblr ](http://www.lbswasp.tumblr.com) :-)


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